Bio
Fiona Carswell is a Sligo-based artist whose socially engaged practice examines the relationship between empathy and behaviour: whether understanding the perspective of another person or another species can change how people think and act. Her current work applies this inquiry to food security, sustainability, and biodiversity.
Her practice draws on more than 15 years as a user researcher and designer. She also completed horticultural training at the New York Botanical Garden, covering soil science, native plants and ecology, and trained in farm-to-table systems on an organic farm in California. She holds a master's degree from NYU Tisch School of the Arts (ITP).
With NY Sun Works, she co-designed a year-long, climate-focused STEM curriculum for students of all ages, aligned with New York City and State standards, along with at-home hydroponic learning kits. She also helped initiate a harvest programme in which students grow food for their families. Her project The Brooklyn Bird Bugle (2021–22), a newspaper written by and for urban birds, engaged children and families with climate change, food availability, and migration.
Born in Northern Ireland and having lived for many years in the United States, she is now based in the North-West of Ireland, where she is one of the founding members of the Atlantic North-West Sustainable Food Group. She has exhibited at the RHA Annual Exhibition in Dublin, Hamilton Gallery in Sligo, Cairde Visual, and Pulchri Studio in The Hague. She was an International Fellow at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice and an artist scholar at the Banff New Media Institute. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, BBC News, and Wired, amongst others.